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Topic: 1968 Rally Sport grille research (Read 146343 times)

In that case you have the 68 headlamp doors. Again though, NO Chrome heatstamping, right?

I think we might be able to assume that the change to the grille and doors was made somewhere between 04A (ccargo's car WITH the chrome heatstamping), and 05D (My car WITHOUT the Heatstamping). However, this is assuming there WAS a change!! Not enough info to make any kind of real determination just yet.

If we could get a few more members with RS cars to chime in here, preferrably members with cars built between 04A and 05D, we might be able to narrow this down a bit and come up with a real resolution regarding this.

Can you post a pic of your housing? See also 68 AIM pg Z22 A7....#11 looks like yours Ed. Les and I have "squares". So I looked in the 67 AIM but it has the same as the 68 pattern. Same numbers too for each year in AIM...3914747-8. Must have been a design change in there. Does not seem to significant to our discussion though.

Steve

Edit: On second thought maybe it is. The housing that is. Changes being made in the grille, changes being made in housings?

I don't believe the backing plates would make a difference in the overall scheme of things. Especially since my car is the same as yours and Les' (with the exception of the backing plates and the fact that Les has the 68 door covers while you and I have the 67).

Here's a picture though (passenger side with the drivers side the same design...)

Looks nice and straight, no "fix" anywhere that I can see. If there was an accident (HL cover replaced with 67) and this part was damaged and "fixed" but not replaced in front end collision, then no sign of it here!

In a post you started regarding a recent purchase you made you stated the following "It is a 68 RS SS 396/375 and the previous owner had repainted it black from the original Z-Z British Green code, removed all the badging and wheel and rocker panel chrome trim, and blacked out the grille. I am putting the SS badging and RS chrome back on along with a new grille with chrome leading edges where the factory correct is painted silver. The grille should look like the one on the 68 RS SS on the front of Chevrolet By The Numbers 1965-69. " I was wondering if you had changed out the grille yet. If not could you contribute to this thread? We would appreciate it

I have an original 1968 L35 convertible delivered new to Canada in St. John's NFLD. It is March 68 ship date and documented by George Zapora in 1983. I still have the original grille and it and the headlamp doors are all heatstamped chrome. The original owner who i knew and who frequently lent me the car till I bought it in 1972, had painted the grille black but after weathering the chrome came right back through.

GM Canada delivered a replacement center section to my dealer in 1982 and it was all black. I never put it on the car. I will see if I can find the box and PN.

The easiest way to check if the grille is a replacement is to look at the originality of the rivets holding the assembly together. The orginals are truss head aluminium holllw shank with set backs. Since replacement grilles came as a plastic section, the aluminium mouldings had to be reattached or renewed and pop rivets were supplied for this procedure.

I haven't forgotten you all, but I can't tell you how busy I am, and you're plugging away at this fine without me. The more you refine things the better. If you can home in on a particular few weeks as you seem to be trending to, I can select a chunk of RS cars (no need to focus only on SS/RS) from the database (that Kurt and Daniel patiently maintain) and do an emailing to see who (with valid non-bouncing emails) will respond and still have their car and are willing to help further, and pass those on to Steve/Ed. Then we can also do the same thing with some selected spot-checks of high-quality original data cars from that point to the end of production to make sure the trend is consistent. I would recommend you also track NOR vs LOS to ensure there wasn't a plant supplier difference.

OK all you 68 RS folks out there lets have that data!! Lets start with cars built between 04A and 06A to start with and narrow it down from there. Be sure to ID manufacturing plant as NOR or LOS. Thanks!!!

In the WHEELCOVER THREAD you mentioned the Ray Miller book, "Camaro! Chevy's Classy Chassis" and brought up a good point regarding the timeline of that book. April of 1981 was the first printing, which means that the research and pictures were done in 1980 and perhaps even earlier. This means that the 68's referenced were approximately 12 years old. I looked at the RS Grilles of the two cars that still had the original California black plates, and noted the color of the grille -vs- the license plate number. Here's what I got:

License VIW 548 (Page 98 through 105) Black Grille (appears to be chromed on page 100 but I believe that to be due to the lighting.)License WBH 171 (Page 96) Black Grille

Both of these cars are "San Diego County" cars (City Chevrolet, located in San Diego, and Weseloh Chevrolet, Located in Carlsbad), and going by the License Plate Numbers, both of these cars are late 68 models as well. "V" and "W" License Plates were mid 68 releases for San Diego County. (My first 68, which I bought in February 1976 from the original owner, was also a "W" issue and it was a June (Los Angeles) built car. And now that I think of it, this car (also a SS/RS) had the black grille because I remember other 68 RS owners telling me it was wrong at the time!!

Anyway, it's staring to appear that the late 68 cars may have received the black grille. Of course, either or both of these cars in the book may have had their grilles changed at some point, so this data could be skewed. But if not, it's just more evidence to support Steve's theory.

Oh yeah, my current car is also a Los Angeles built car, built in 05D. Les? Steve? Are your cars Norwood or Los Angeles?